William,

Great chart and fantastic realization! I've always dug Rosza. I read once that he had a clause in his contract with MGM that gave him 3 months a year off from scoring pictures so he would have time to concentrate on writing legit stuff. Somehow, in his movie music, he just hit the mark to make stuff sound "Roman," despite the fact that there was nothing particularly Roman about it at all. I always get a hoot out of those scenes in Ben-Hur where we are supposed to believe that the marches and fanfares are being played by the band in the movie...on axes that are pretty much brass vuvuzelas. It's kinda like Korngold convincing us that the perfect music for a 1930s movie about 16th century pirates is late-19th century Romantic orchestral music. Weird, but he was sure right!

As for your march, I really enjoy it. The humanizing effects really bring it to life. Do you have a performable score and parts? I'd love to run it by the leader of a wind band that I play in. We do a concert with a pipe organ every year and I think this chart would be great fun to play and go over very well with our audience.

Congratulations and keep up the good work!

Tom

Thanks a lot Tom.  I do have a score and will get in touch.

Concerning Rosza I am a big fan and still remember the first time I heard one of his "Roman" marches - it was on a little clock radio with a three inch speaker but I was blown away and had to find out what that music was.  I later found out it was the march from Quo Vadis, which is equal to the Ben Hur pieces.  You're right about how it isn't faintly Roman but seems to fit perfectly.  There are a whole bunch of those marches in Ben Hur including Parade of the Charioteers and several miscellaneous little but very loud marches here and there whenever Roman legions are seen. 

That is a good comparison with Korngold.   He is equally great, but that anachronism reminds me of seeing royal heraldic trumpets in a throne room and they are playing complex modulating chromatic parts for the arrival of the king.   

Wow, William.  A great production that really makes those brass instruments sing!  While the extent of my experience with brass instruments is playing french horn in high school, I always enjoy the power and majesty that a piece like yours creates and I'm even happier to hear that Tom might be able to program your piece in live performance!  

Great job as always,

Dave

William, this is very impressive and a surely working combination of brass ensemble with pipe organ. I can clearly remember so many wonderful and appealing recordings by Maurice André with all kinds of (baroque) organs. 

This is a composition that speaks so well for brass and cannot be made but by an expert (in brass). I'm sure it will work out nicely in any church with an organ that is powerful enough the counterplay the brass parts. 

The chimes are a bit unusually loud to my ears (did you have real church bells in mind?). But as a whole, again a fantastic composition. Hopefully Tom's ensemble can play it soon!

Thanks for sharing,

Jos

Thanks Dave and Jos.  On the chimes you're right they are rather loud.  Somehow I didn't want to take them down.  

@William said:

Here is one of my brass and percussion marches composed in a mania under the influence of Miklos Rosza.  I used the new extended Dimension brass for it ---

Triumphal March

WOW! I love it. I am a big fan of Rosza. Your Triumphal March is 100% original and great music on it's own, but it also does honor to the fine compositions of Rosza, and brings his work to mind.

The Dimension Brass sounds terrific. I just finished doing a midi-performance of the Dvorak 9th Symphony Movement IV, using Dimension Brass and I am about to post a link. That library has certainly grown on me over time, and with the new expansion, it is now my favorite orchestral brass.

In your Triumphal March I particularly enjoyed the "B" strain.

Thanks very much Paul.  I agree about the Dimension Brass - they are now as versatile as the other brass with those new articulations. 

This sounds fantastic William!!!

Sorry I'm a late comer to the party here so I don't know what to say that hasn't already been said but I'm wondering how much of this was the Dimension Brass and how much of it was just your painstaking attention to detail with the programing and MIDIstration.

Everything about it sounded so natural.  If I had heard this on the local Classical station, which BTW did a Rozsa Spotlight show not too recently, I never would have suspected sample libraries.

Congratulations! 

Thanks Jasen.  One thing about the performance is it was originally done with the previous brass - solo and ensemble - and when I remixed it for Dimension I was able to use almost exactly the same tracks with very little alteration.  So the Dimension can be added or substituted with the other VI brass without any extra work.  

I'm resurrecting this old thread to let eveyone know that our brass and percussion ensemble, along with Mr. Gerald Von Dusseldorp, organist, performed William's Triumphal March in Colorado Springs on March 10. I became aware of this piece via this forum thread. Our musicians enjoyed playing the march and it was well-received by our audience. Thank you, William!

Thank you very much Tom, that was great to have it played!  

@tchampe said:

I'm resurrecting this old thread to let eveyone know that our brass and percussion ensemble, along with Mr. Gerald Von Dusseldorp, organist, performed William's Triumphal March in Colorado Springs on March 10. I became aware of this piece via this forum thread. Our musicians enjoyed playing the march and it was well-received by our audience. Thank you, William!

That is so awesome. Marvelous!